Protege Moi
by lucratcia
Summary: The pilots are on the run. A broken pilot is the result of a discovery of one's thinking.


Protege Moi 

Disclaimer: Not mine, don't bother with even the accusation.

A/N: A short diddy. An extension of something written before things got turned upside down, living wise. Almost poetry form, but not quite. Even though it was my b-day, I decided to treat myself and get some actual writing done for Hep-kitty.

Warning: Eh, angsty, I guess. Definitely not the happy go lucky thing somebody would actually write on their birthday. But, this is me, so sue me.

The so called safe house was in near ruins. A few windows missing and none of the stairs trustworthy that lead to the second floor, nobody has decided to try to climb them just yet. The wind howled outside, finding its way through the cracks in the walls and under the panels of the floor. A storm was coming, and not just the kind of mother nature.

Each of them were battered and worn to their very limits. Quatre's normally blonde hair was plastered to his head with mud and flecks of blood. His right arm bandaged from the shoulder down and then tied to his side to prevent movement. His blue eyes had a haunted hallow look to them as he stared out into nothing.

Trowa's one visible eye was closed in concentration as he finished the last of the stitches from a gash to the back of his leg. The bottom of his pant leg was bloody and his shoe was swollen with the thick liquid. He would have to splint a couple of fingers before the swelling got to bad and he wouldn't be able to set them right. It wouldn't do for a pilot not to be able to use his hands properly. Bruises peppered his jaw line and thankfully, for him at least, his long bangs covered an eye that was too swollen to even try to open.

Wufei had made his way to the far wall. As he slid down to rest against the floor, a trail of blood marked his way. Shrapnel had scattered its way across his back. Nothing deep, but just enough to be painful and to bleed continuously in small amounts. He had had the least amount of sleep out of all of them and was trying without much success to fall over onto his face. His raven black hair was in knots, his hair tie long gone since the very begining of the mission gone wrong that sent them on a constant run for the past week. His pants were in shreds, whip lashes that had broken skin lined his legs from the knees down, front and back.

Duo's braid was in ruins, chunks of it missing from being cut or caught in barb wire and various other traps. Cuts, scrapes and bruises covered most of his face from seeing the wrong end of some fists and a knife. His nose was a little crooked and clogged with dry blood from being broken a couple days ago. He really didn't have the time to get it to set right, a small thing considering he was trying to keep his head on his shoulders. His shoulder screamed in pain from being dislocated and forcefully put back into place. His left wrist was broken for sure and even bandaged tightly, it throbbed with almost each and every movement he made.

Even Heero perfect Yuy was wearing down and looked as if he was about to throw in the perverbial towel and find the nearest self detonation device. Both of his lips were split leading down to an impressive bruise along his jaw. His captor, at the time, had not been pleased when Heero had refused to talk. Dark bruises surrounded the base of his neck from somebody's fail attempt of strangling him, they had not realised that getting that close to him was a really bad idea. At the moment, he was busy pulling a bullet out of his thigh and trying not to lose too much blood in the process.

The damn mission had gone bad as soon as each of them were in place without their gundams. It was a large base, each of them in seperate areas, different jobs. All seemed to be going to plan, each of them ignoring the fact that the scientists refused any contact with them just hours prior. As the trap enclosed on each of them, they realised that they were utterly and totally on their own. Nothing could have been worse than being captured and knowing that all the others were also captured and there was nothing any of them could do. For a week they were starved and beaten and drugged. For a week, they lived in a Hell worse than the war, worse than they thought it could ever be.

But, Heero wouldn't be Heero if he couldn't literally bend any metal except gundanium. Duo wouldn't be Duo without his lock picks and habits of stealth. Wufei's guards showed a weakness that he abruptly put an end to. Trowa managed to escape without flair, without a sound and went to get Quatre who he found already outside his cell with a worried and sad look in his eyes. They each had an escape plan and made good on it, all of them knowing that something went a little too easily for them all to be able to escape.

Wufei, the last of them that made it to the safe house, had no sooner made it into the kitchen when a bomb went off right outside the front entrance. Glass burst through the living area, splinters of wood and chunks of plaster followed in its wake. OZ soldiers, fully geared, filed in through the new entrance among the falling debris. With a shout, each gundam pilot ran out the back and right into a fierce fire fight. Oz had become nothing, if not thorough in their attacks against the pilots.

Heero hissed as a bullet grazed his upper arm as he turned and shot a soldier about to pull the trigger of a gun pointed at Quatre's forehead. Duo's eyes widened impossible large as he dove onto his stomach, three bullets from three different angles making a pattern into the side of the safehouse where he had just stood. Wufei ran up and yanked Duo to his feet ignoring the protests of pain from his partner and from his own body. He spared a glance back and saw Quatre flinging his arm around the shoulders of the taller Heavyarms pilot, using him for support. Only Heero managed to move on his own.

"Move out!" Heero shouted as he pulled another gun out of his stolen loose jacket. With a gun in each hand, he shot anything that moved towards them while backing away as fast as he could. Shots rang out around them, splintering the trees and littering the ground, too many of the bullets coming too close for comfort and a couple of them hitting their marks, if only grazing flesh.

And so they ran. For over an hour, they didn't see any sign of shelter. Deeper within the woods, they found another cabin. They barely had time to hastily bandage the most serious of wounds when they heard the voices of Oz soldiers closing in on them once again. With gritting of teeth and suppressed complaints they were on the move before the soldiers of Oz could completely surround them. And so it continued much the same way for a week. Each taking turns carrying each other and offering support when needed, physically and verbally in the cases of Duo and Quatre. But even they quit talking after three days of the same thing. Sometimes, when they were lucky and they had either fooled the soldiers hot on their tail or they were just as exhausted, the gundam pilots were able to stay in a place for more than an hour and catch quick snatches of sleep.

A week of running and they had ended up here, in some abandoned building with no way to contact anybody. Quatre could no longer reach the maguanacs. The scientists stubbornly silent and unreachable. None of their few contacts would speak to them as their movements were loudly broadcasted at every chance. Nobody on the earth nor the colonies wanted or could afford to help the young gundam pilots.

Duo lay on his back, almost in the center of the dirty floor. He stared up at the ceiling, his eyes unfocused, and not just from the concussion he magicly seemed to have gotten when he had slipped on an icy embankment. He was muttering to himself when he just suddenly let out a laugh, and not of the healthy variety either. Quatre's eye's came into focus and each of the other pilots turned a wary eye or two on the Deathscythe pilot.

"And just what are you babbling about over there Maxwell?" Wufei asked, somehow finding the energy to sit himself up. Duo's eyes were staring at, no through, the ceiling, seeing something none of them were. His eyes held a manic gleam, something very similar to what Quatre's looked like after his nasty bout with the zero system.

"Protege moi." Trowa's eyes narrowed at what sounded like a warning, a pleading warning, dangerous all the same.

"What if there was only one thing you must do, only one thing to have everything. Anything with just a thought?" There he paused, but seeing as nobody was thinking he was serious, he went on.

"With no cost, no pain, no regrets, because you never knew what would happen. You never realise that it is the others." He sat up abruptly looking at each of them, making sure he had all of their attentions.

"Your friends."

"Your family." A pointed look at Quatre.

"Complete strangers." Each knowing he was thinking of the colonies or even those on Earth they were sent to save also.

"Your lover." A blank look at Heero.

"Your soul." The last was sent over to Wufei.

"It is them that pay the price. The price of blood, of sweat, of tears, of their life, their soul."

"Would you rather not know?" He raised an eyebrow at them, one at a time, each had a turn of the full look of Shinigami. Gone was Duo their friend, Shinigami had come and taken his place. "Or... even if you were told, would there be something out there, something worth that heavy price?" Silence reigned the room. Even the wind seemed to have died down to let this creature speak uninterrupted.

"No?"

"What if you searched for your God? What if He wasn't there?

"What if you searched the stars for proof or ithin the earth, trees and life itself? What if you had a love so great and lost it, and you found out nothing larger was out there?" Flashes of the past came before his eyes as he spoke. Memories that he'd rather not remember, of Solo and the kids that he took care of. Of the Father and Sister...

"What if you didn't have to beseech a higher power, if you could have it yourself?"

"the ultimate power, endless riches, able to escape fate or to decide death or life?" Shinigami's voice was pained and thick with some emotion that should have remained hidden. His voice was low and barely above a whisper, but nobody in the room could have doubted his what words he was saying.

"Ultimate power would bring ultimate corruption. But, it would all be without a thought, because you wouldn't regret it. Not until its over, until its too late to change your mind."

"But... you have it all."

"You would be alone, with nobody, but have it all." His voice was harsh and his breathing heavy, and stil he continued.

"Would you do it then? If even to have a taste of it, even for the shortest bit of time..." His voice faded and his eyes full of tears unshed closed slowly. After a few moments, Quatre decided to try to say something.

"Duo?" he asked tentatively. Nobody knew if it would be Duo or Shinigami they were facing anymore. His violet eyes flashed open, his lips almost in a snarl. He brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms tightly around himself as if to keep from flying into a rage.

"Can any of you answer me that?" Silence.

"Can any of you answer me that!" He shouted, his voice raw and the tears finally falling. Sobs wraked his body, although they were mostly silent. Heero crawled over to his comrade, friend, even at one time lover and slowly reached out to him.

"Heero?" Prussian blue eyes closed and a minute shake of unruly hair was all Duo got for an answer. "Well, I can tell you something then buddy," he choked out. "I think right now I wouldn't be able to choose no." Heero scooted closer and dared to wrap his arms around the smaller pilot.

"I wouldn't say NO!" Duo cried out, letting the sobs vocalize as he rocked a little back and forth.

"Ssshh, Duo. It's going to be okay," Heero said calmly, rubbing one hand down Duo's uninjured arm and the other running over the ruined braid just slightly. "It's going to be okay," he repeated over and over, a litany, something solid in this place and time they could not trust.

"I wouldn't say no," Duo muttered. "Heero, God, somebody, protect me from myself." The other pilots looked everywhere but at the pilot, neither condemning or condoning nor offering any support.

"I wouldn't say no..."

Outside the wind howled, bringing with it drenching rain and roaring thunder. The only sound in the abandoned house was the sobs of a broken pilot and his continous words.

I wouldn't say no...

Heh, a short diddy like I said. Comments?...


End file.
